"The best chance' for peace in Bosnia

EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, November 1, 1995

1995-11-01 04:00:00 PDT OHIO, UNITED STATES; BOSNIA; CROATIA; SERBIA -- DAYTON, Ohio - Secretary of State Warren Christopher arrived to open Balkans peace talks Wednesday, saying the whole world was watching what might prove to be "the last, best chance for peace in Bosnia."

Christopher joined the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia as talks on ending four years of bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia were set to formally open.

Earlier Wednesday, the chief U.S. mediator said he had detected "a distinct hardening" of the positions of the three Balkans presidents.

"They're digging in for tough negotiations, and so are we," chief U.S. mediator Richard Holbrooke, whose shuttle missions to the Balkans laid the groundwork for the conference, said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

The three leaders arrived separately Tuesday night at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton.

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"We're not promising anything here except our best shot," Holbrooke added on NBC's "Today" show. His pessimism was a contrast to the view of at least one of the participants.

"I'm an optimist. I believe the talks will succeed," declared Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, the principal power broker in the region and the first to arrive.

Milosevic and presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, who arrived within several hours of each other, were spirited away after brief welcoming ceremonies.

Christopher was to formally open the talks at the Midwestern military installation Wednesday morning. Further negotiations will be conducted by Holbrooke. No date has been set for conclusion of the meeting.

Holbrooke, who made the rounds of the morning TV news shows Wednesday, said on "CBS Today" that the three leaders "have come in with very tough lines. They're really loaded for tough talks here."

"All three presidents, when they arrived last night, showed a distinct hardening of their positions," he said on ABC.

On the eve of the talks, President Clinton warned the warring parties that their negotiations may be "the last chance we have for a very long time" to end the war.

Clinton to seek backing&lt;

"So much is riding on the success in Dayton, and the whole world is watching," Clinton said Tuesday at the White House.

Clinton, in a 10-minute broadcast address from the Roosevelt Room, emphasized that the United States has a singular leadership role to play in solving the Balkans crisis.

Clinton said American troops would be deployed in Bosnia only if there were a peace agreement. They would operate under NATO command, with clear rules of engagement and a clearly defined mission, the president said.

On Monday the House, by a 315-103 vote, approved a nonbinding resolution indicating hesitance about Clinton's plan to send up to 25,000 American troops to Bosnia.

Clinton said he would ask Congress for "an expression of support" for using American troops in the event of a peace accord. "Our foreign policy works best when we work together. I want the widest possible support for peace."

Working with blueprint&lt;

The Balkans presidents already have agreed on a constitutional blueprint - hammered out during a series of shuttle missions by Holbrooke - that would create two entities within a united Bosnian state.

But a number of critical issues remain unresolved. They include an armistice and the separation of forces, maps of the exact territorial division of Bosnia, the status of Sarajevo and the fate of Eastern Slavonia, the last slice of Croatia still occupied by rebel Serbs.

Croatia has threatened to go to war if an agreement is not reached by the end of November. A tenuous cease-fire now in force in Bosnia would almost certainly collapse in that event.

The American delegation has drafted a general peace accord, consisting of several separate agreements, that address each of the unresolved issues.

"We attach great importance to the peace initiative of the U.S. and we are here to join the efforts to bring peace to the Balkans," said Milosevic, whom top U.S. officials once accused of starting the conflict. They now concede, however, that without Milosevic, who will also be negotiating on behalf of Bosnia's Serbian rebels, they have no chance of achieving a lasting peace.

Carrot for Serbs&lt;

The inducement for the Bosnian Serbs is an ethnic republic covering about half of Bosnia; for Milosevic, it is an end to U.N. trade sanctions that have decimated Serbia's economy.

The Serbian president strutted along a red carpet reviewing an honor guard as a blinking electronic signboard in front of him flashed the words: "Welcome President Milosevic to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base."

The windswept military base, far from Washington, was chosen to keep the negotiations private.

Milosevic's optimism was echoed by Tudjman, who declared he would not have come to the United States if he did not believe in the successful outcome of the talks.

"We came with determination to achieve a just peace," declared Izetbegovic, who flew in last. "I am moderately, moderately optimistic," he said, adding he did not believe the talks would last very long.&lt;